At its meeting last night (Tuesday 20 March), Council approved a Revenue Budget for 2018/19 delivering savings of £13.6 million in line with the funding gap faced.
The savings achieved included almost £5.8 million in Management Efficiencies and £7.8 million in savings across a range of areas including the Council’s funding allocation to the HSCP and EDLC Trust, increases in charges, the introduction of cashless-only payment services across Council facilities and changes to employees Terms and Conditions.
Not all proposals to change employee Terms and Conditions that were put forward were approved. Councillors also rejected proposals to introduce soup and sandwich only options for school lunch on a Friday and the proposal to remove of the Non-Domestic Rates Discretionary Relief.
A Council Tax increase of 3% was unanimously agreed at a previous Council meeting last month which contributes additional income of £2.2 million to meet the funding gap.
Council also approved its Revised 10 Year Capital Investment Plan and Update on Major Assets Projects, which sees investment in the area continue with agreement to deliver a new Additional Support Needs (ASN) School for the area.
Gerry Cornes, Chief Executive said, “The Council agreed a Revenue Budget that delivers the £13.6 million reduction required, against a backdrop of over £73.1 million in savings already delivered since 2008/9.
“There is no denying that the budget decisions impact on our residents and our employees, however, the savings have been achieved without enforced job reduction, outsourcing of services or service cessation proposals.
“The changes agreed to our employee Terms & Conditions are challenging if unavoidable and it is our intention to work with the Trade Unions as detailed in the proposals and to support our employees through the changes, which prevent enforced job losses in these continuing challenging financial times.”
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